Wednesday, 31 July 2013

It's hard to deny that the Call of Duty games are starting to become a little stale. They're by no means bad games, but with one released a year, there isn't enough difference between each instalment. 2010 saw the release of Black Ops (this reviewer's favourite Call of Duty since Modern Warfare 1), Treyarch's first attempt at a more modern setting, with an insane story and great group of characters shooting their way through the 1960s. Now, it has a sequel. Is it as good as the original? Read on to find out!

Sunday, 28 July 2013

Gaijin Games are masters of taking classic genres and infusing music-based gameplay. The Runner games are a fresh take on platforming, with incredibly fast gameplay high difficulty, whilst Beat is a modern version of the Atari classic, Breakout. There are many others and they're all equally successful in taking a classic formula and injecting not only new life, but wonderful chiptune music that is affected by what you do. So now Fate, originally released for the Nintendo Wii, is available for PC. Does it share the same level of quality that the series has maintained for so long? Read on to find out!

Monday, 22 July 2013

The first season of Telltale's The Walking Dead games was unquestionably amazing. More of an interactive story than a game, you made and lost friends, you saved people, you left others for dead, but more importantly you protected Clementine, an 8 year old girl, and taught her to survive. It was all of these things combined that made The Walking Dead such an emotional roller coaster. The decisions are hard, and you can't always do the right thing for everyone. It was an incredible experience, and fans hankering for more need not worry, as 400 Days, the final piece of content for season one, is available now. It may not be the longest DLC, but it's definitely worth buying. Read on to find out why.

Saturday, 20 July 2013

Some gamers may not be aware of Deadpool, a self-aware Marvel anti-hero with many voices in his head, and a habit of breaking the fourth wall in his comics. With a character that must be fun to write for, surely a video game adaptation will be right up Deadpool's street? The game starts with Deadpool receiving a script for the Deadpool video game. High Moon Studios sent him over a draft, but he isn't happy. He decides to improvise, because obviously he knows what's best for this game. The result is an overly expensive, hilarious mess, that High Moon simply cannot afford. Does the actual game fare much better than the meta game? Read on to find out.

Wednesday, 17 July 2013

Guillermo Del Toro's epic sci-fi movie, Pacific Rim, is a story about colossal monsters who have been hiding deep in the Pacific Ocean, and suddenly attack mankind. In retaliation, equally massive robots are built, and put under the control of specially chosen fighters. Instead of a usual movie tie-in, you don't strictly follow the story, you just take part in increasingly hard fights, levelling up and upgrading your Jaeger as you progress. The movie looks really damn cool, but movie games don't have a good track record at all, so how does this one hold up? Read on to find out the full verdict!

Thursday, 11 July 2013

There aren't many games that focus on the biker gang. We had the Grand Theft Auto IV expansion "The Lost and the Damned", but that's the only one that comes to mind, and that was not even a full game. Well, Eutechnyx have come to remedy that, with the release of their title, Ride to Hell: Retribution. It's a mix of linear bike riding, bike combat, shooting and fighting and there's a tiny home level, where you can stock up on ammo and customise your bike. Is it better than the amazing GTA IV expansion? Well, it may be one of the worst games to have ever been released. Read on to find out the reasons why.

Wednesday, 10 July 2013

Rockstar Games announced suddenly on the 8th of July that a Grand Theft Auto V gameplay video was incoming. And they didn't give us long to prepare, as it lunched the next day. This is the public's first look at the heist planning, character switching, car and weapon customisation, activities, vastly improved gunplay and most importantly, the all new, reimagined Los Santos. If this video is anything to go by, it would seem that Rockstar have taken everything learned from previous games to create their greatest title yet. The graphics are mind-blowing, and the map seems to be staggeringly huge. This video has made the wait till September 17th a lot harder, but with the promise of at least one more gameplay video (focussing on Grand Theft Auto Online), should tide fans over for at least a little while.

Tuesday, 9 July 2013

Every now and then, a game is released that is like no other before it. In one way or another, it's completely unique. When I heard the title, "Surgeon Simulator 2013," it's fair to say that I was not expecting it to be one of those sorts of games. How wrong I was. Out of my many years of experience as a gamer, I can recall nothing even remotely similar to this. The title may put some people off, as it just sounds like one of those badly made simulator games that no real gamer would ever have any interest in playing, like Forklift Truck Simulator or something equally boring. Surgeon Simulator 2013 is less of a traditional sim, and it's probably one of the most unforgettable games I've ever played. Read on for the full verdict!

Friday, 5 July 2013

Hitting the Xbox Live Arcade Marketplace this week is a little game called Capsized. It's the tale of a lone astronaut, stranded on a hostile alien planet after his ship went down. Along the journey you'll find missing astronaut team-mates, discover an array of powerful alien weaponry, solve a lot of physics based puzzles and kill a lot of different enemies, all accompanied by a delightful hand-drawn style, ambient music and a sad, silent story of one man's mission to survive. The game is already available on PC and iOS devices, but how does the XBLA version, developed by indiePub, hold up? Read on to find out!

Wednesday, 3 July 2013

Spartacus Legends is a free-to-play fighting game set in Ancient Rome, based on the popular Spartacus TV series. Developed by Kung Fu Factory and published by Ubisoft, Spartacus Legends puts you in charge of a weak fighter, and you must build up his fame, money and skills to become the ultimate Gladiator. Free-to-play games have reached out to a new generation of casual gamers on iOS devices and PCs, but there aren't many examples on home consoles, so how will this one be received by the less casual console gamer? A great example of a more hardcore F2P title is Team Fortress 2. With that, Valve have mastered the model, with consistently impressive and enviable new weapons and accessories available to purchase for a small price. It has shown that F2P games can thrive if they are done right. Will Spartacus Legends be able to recreate that success? Read on to find out...